The Nanny Named Nat
by MethodicEarth
Summary: AU inspired by the 90's sitcom, The Nanny. As head of the Italian Mafia as well as being locked in a war with the rival Russian Mafia, Romulus doesn't have much time to raise his grandsons. The twins can take care of themselves, but his youngest needs someone to watch over them. The easiest solution? Hire a nanny, of course.
1. Chapter 1

We've all heard the story of Romeo and Juliet. Whether you despise it or absolutely love it, the story has been ingrained into your mind. Two lovers from rival families go against fate itself in order to be together. Much like the story of Cinderella, the story of Romeo and Juliet has been told time after time in ways that make you see the story in a completely different light.

Our story begins on a doorstep. On that doorstep stands a young woman with blonde hair and a dark blue dress with a matching bow. The only break in the cool color was a starched, white apron tired around her waist. To her right was a small, plain suitcase that looked new and barely filled. Keeping a neutral expression, she reached out and pressed a dainty finger to a button. Deep inside the manor in front of her, shrill bells came in reply to the button press. After a second, she released the button and waited patiently with her hands folded together in front of her.

It took a few moments, but clamoring footsteps could be heard just behind the door. Before they reached it, however, the door was opened by a small child. He looked up at the woman with excited green eyes that were accented by hardly-tamed curly copper hair with a a lone curl that stuck out at an odd angle. The excitement quickly turned into curiosity as his hand left the worn gold handle of the door. In the most innocuous tone he could muster, he asked her, "Are you my new nanny?"

For a moment, the woman was unsure how to respond. Quickly, she gave him a gentle smile that made creases in her cheeks. Crouching down to his height, she held her hand out to him. "I think I am. My name is Natasha. What's yours, little one?" With a charming grin, he took three of her fingers into his small hand and shook it. "I'm Romeo and I'm three years old!" Releasing her hand, the child squealed as he was lifted up into the air. Standing up, Natasha had to look up at the man holding a giggling Romeo on his shoulders.

"Ah, you must be the young lady I requested. My name is Romulus, and I see you've already met my youngest grandson." Flashing a dazzling grin, it was easy to tell that he was related to Romeo. His dark brown hair was fully curly and untamed, yet it somehow managed to look professional. He was easily much bigger than Natasha, towering over her by at least a foot. His chin was lined with stubble and he had dark brown eyes that were crinkled at the edges. His face was covered in laugh lines, though if one looked close enough, they could find old scars that had faded with time. With one hand keeping Romeo steady, Romulus grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

Natasha barely had time to grab her bag before being three feet into the marble foyer. At a quick glance, it was obvious that most guests only saw this far into the manor. Everything was neatly polished and formal, with no personal touches anywhere. Romulus was rambling on about something, but Natasha wasn't listening much. She heard and stored the information, but most of her attention was taking in her surroundings.

Romulus lead Natasha all through the downstairs, showing her the kitchen, dining room, offices that stayed private, and a grand ballroom with an arched ceiling that cut through the second floor. The only time Romulus stopped was to let Romeo down in order to safely climb up carpeted marble stairs. At the bottom, Natasha looked up to admire the height of the ceiling only to see a pair of heads looking down from the bannister on the second floor. One had auburn hair that was significantly less curly than Romulus' while the other had deep brown curls that seemed to shine red. They both had curls that stuck out, but they were less obvious than Romeo's.

The auburn-haired man noticed that Natasha had spotted the pair and violently waved at her, a genuinely happy smile stretched across his face. The other frowned and turned away, disappearing from the side. Quickly, Natasha went to catch up to Romulus and Romeo, who were already halfway up the stairs. Once the trio reached the top, the two men were waiting there side by side. The smiling one was a few inches taller than the other, but his clothes were more messy, as if they had been put on in a hurry and never fixed. Romulus grinned to them before turning to Natasha. Spreading his arm out to gesture to the new men, he announced, "These are my twin grandsons. The taller one is Feliciano and the grumpy one is Lovino. They're both too old for a nanny, but it never hurts to make friends, si?"

As soon as Romulus finished his sentence, Feliciano dashed to Natasha and shook her hand excitedly, enough to pull on her arm and almost throw her up and down. "I'm so glad to meet you! No one else has really stayed for long and I honestly don't expect you to either, but maybe you'll be the lucky one!" Smile never leaving his face, his words came out almost too quickly to understand. Almost. In fact, Natasha probably wouldn't have reacted if Lovino didn't smack the back of Feliciano's head.

"Don't talk like that, idiot, that's my job," Lovino reprimanded. Whining, Feliciano released her hand to rub the back of his head. Avoiding eye contact, Lovino begrudgingly added, "I guess it's good to see that someone wants to try and raise our brother. Just don't mess up or there'll be hell to pay."

The stark difference between the personalities of the twins left Natasha momentarily stunned. Finally, she gave them a small curtsy and stated, "My name is Natasha. I look forward to my stay while I help take care of Romeo."


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as all of the introductions had been finished, Natasha found Romeo clinging to her leg. Hiding her vast discomfort with a forced smile, she allowed him to stay as Romulus led her to the room where she would be staying. It was cold and bare, obviously unused for quite some time. The bed was starched into place, tucked and folded neatly without any imperfections. There was nothing on the walls except for a blank pin board that was obviously new. There were no curtains on the wide window, just cordless shades that could be pulled from the top and the bottom. Aside from the bed, there was a tall wardrobe and a desk with a small lamp and a rolling chair. The carpet was fairly plush, freshly vacuumed with no signs of wear. There were two doors, one wooden with a handle while the other was actually a set of mirrors that slid aside to show a closet. For what, considering the wardrobe, Natasha had no idea. For the small woman, this room was perfect for her.

Romulus chirped in from behind her, "I didn't have anything brought in so you could personalize it yourself. Tomorrow is Saturday, no? I'll have Feli and Lovi take you into town to get you some personal effects. Don't worry about cost, I'll take care of it for you. For now, I'll take Romeo and let you unpack." Romeo quickly relinquished his grip on her leg in favor of his grandfather and the prospect of being picked up. Natasha lifted the light travel suitcase onto her bed, starting to unzip it as Romulus took Romeo away on his shoulders. Once his steps faded down the hallway, Natasha immediately stopped opening her case and explored her room more intimately. Feeling the creases at the molding, looking behind all the furniture, sweeping the shelf high up in the closet. Mostly checking for anything that could have been planted in the room before she came. To her delight, the only thing she found was copious amounts of dust.

Turning her attention to the closed door, she placed a hand on the stainless steel handle and opened it. Stepping into the room, she flicked on the light to find a personal bathroom. It suited her well enough, with a shower/bathtub combo, a toilet in a separate, smaller room, and a large counter for the sink along with yet another mirror behind it. The cupboards under the sink were stocked with toilet paper and extra towels. Seeming satisfied with the inspection, Natasha left the bathroom, turning off the lights and closing the door behind her.

At this point, she actually started unpacking. She had brought mostly necessities, toiletries and self care items. Her clothes mostly consisted of socks and undergarments. Besides pants, a few skirts, and some long sleeve shirts, she had also packed tank tops and a leotard with one outfit meant for working out in. While it sounded like quite a bit, the efficiency of her folding made it so that nothing took up too much space.

Hanging up the leotard and skirts in the wardrobe, she sorted the different articles of clothing into separate drawers. Again, there was quite a bit of room left over in each of the drawers. Once this was finished, she left to put the bag of toiletries and self care objects into the bathroom. Coming back, she stopped abruptly at the sight of one of the older brothers sitting in the chair at the desk. The auburn hair sparked her memory as she switched her face to what was meant to be a friendly smile. "You are Lovino, correct? How may I help you?"

Standing up from his seat, Lovino towered over Natasha, even as he hunched over. "Look lady, I don't really care why you didn't pack that much. I don't really care where you're from. Just know that if you hurt either of my brothers-" He paused to flick a folding knife open, gently pressing the tip to the tip of her nose. "I will make your life a living hell." With that, he flicked the knife closed again, making a note when she didn't even flinch.

As he started to stalk out of the room, she made her voice just loud enough for him to hear. "Why did you really come in here?" Spinning around, Lovino cupped his hand around his ear. "Scusa? I'm not sure if I heard you right. I already told you what I came in here to say." If it had been possible, Natasha's stare would have gone right through him. "If had come in to threaten me, you would have done so while my back was turned." With a sneer, he shot back, "Now why would I do that? I'm not a coward!"

With a cold, hollow chuckle and a smile to match, she tilted her head at him. "See, that kind of thinking will keep you from being intimidating. If you want to threaten, doing it from behind gives you an animosity that makes the one you're trying to scare all the more reason to fear you. Or were you more concerned about having me see your pretty little face." Her tone went from serious to antagonizing in milliseconds. The effect of the tone and statement was seen immediately. The young Italian growled, looking at her indignantly. With a smug smirk, Natasha turned away with the triumphant feeling of finding his soft spot.

-

The next day, Lovino barely talked to Natasha, instead communicating through grunts and noises of acknowledgement. Feliciano didn't seem to have any problem filling in the silence as he darted the two around town. He collected curtains, bed covers, even clothes that Natasha had shown any remote interest in. It took them less than an hour to get everything that she would need during her stay.

It wasn't until Lovino started yelling at him that Feliciano finally calmed down. It also happened to be this point where Natasha got something on her own. Slipping away for a brief moment, she got a small CD player/Radio along with some fairly old CD albums. However, when she returned to the twins, neither of them seemed to register her disappearance.

-

Back at the manor, Natasha did some exploring on her own. Romulus was out with Romeo at the park. She searched the different rooms, leaving the ones that happened to be locked, until she found one that seemed to be fit for working out in. Making a mental note of the room and it's location, she took a break from exploring to investigate the clash of porcelain on tile coming from downstairs.


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha found herself in a peculiar situation. Somehow, responding to a broken plate led to a cooking lesson from the twins. Well, from Feliciano, at least. Lovino was content to lounge about the kitchen and snack on bread sticks from the pantry. Watching Feliciano delicately handle at least a pound of powdery pasta dough had a plethora of questions going through Natasha's head. The one that resurfaced the most just happened to be, Who on earth needs that much starch in their diet? Not that she voiced this out loud. After all, Feliciano was nice enough to teach her how to make proper fettuccine, as well as talk about the seemingly never ending list of starchy foods native to Italy.

With the noodles draped onto racks to dry, Feliciano reached over to a basket and plucked out one of the roundest tomatoes Natasha had ever seen. "Every morning, we get our produce straight from a local farmer's market. The things we get are different every day, depending on the crop and the season. Either way, we get at least three crates of produce a day. Most of it is gone by the next morning, though, especially if Grandpa has guests over." He sliced the tomato into quarters, handing one to Natasha for a taste. He and Lovino ate the other three parts.

Gingerly taking a bite of the juicy quarter, Natasha's eyes widened as juice dripped down her chin. Wiping the juice away, she exclaimed, "That's the best thing I've ever tasted!" As she popped the rest of the quarter into her mouth with a look of pure joy, the brothers stared at the expression of emotion from the girl that had been a veritable stone wall the entire time. Noticing the two staring, Natasha quickly rid her face of any expression. "I apologize," she stated, "I don't think I've ever had anything that fresh before."

Lovino opened his mouth to question her only to be cut off by Feliciano, who shouted, "You mean you've never had a real tomato before?!" Shrugging, she replied, "I mean, I've had tomatoes before, but they were either canned or from a supermarket. A tomato's a tomato, isn't it?" At this, Feliciano dramatically faked fainting and fell onto Natasha. Clutching her skirt, he sobbed quite loudly and rambled in Italian. Even Lovino looked pale at Natasha's seeming ignorance towards store bought or prepackaged produce. Ignoring his brother's outbursts, Lovino shook his head, and sighed, "We can teach you the difference. Once you leave here, you'll never stand for store bought ever again, I can promise you that much."

~

After much coaxing and smooth words, Feliciano finally regained himself enough to start making a sauce for the fettuccine. As he started babbling on again about the many variations of pasta sauce, Natasha slipped out of the kitchen unnoticed. Hearing voices in the foyer, she approached to find Romulus talking to a man who had his back to her.

Upon spotting her, Romulus grinned and set Romeo down, who bolted to her in hopes of escaping the boring adults. The other man followed Romeo with his eyes, violet and forever hiding a secret. Before Romeo even reached Natasha, the man's eyes were on her. She froze, her hand clenching into fists as he looked her up and down. With a wink, he shifted his attention back to his conversation with Romulus.

Natasha's mind filled with static as Romeo pulled her away from the grown men. Any attempts at clearing her mind were met with the instinctual urge to become a mindless soldier. It wasn't until Romeo started tugging on her arm that the static finally dissipated. She looked around to find herself in a sort of classroom/playroom for Romeo. After scanning the room to grab a bearing on her surroundings, she looked down at his concerned little face.

"Miss Natasha?" Romeo asked. "Did the man with Grandpa scare you?" She stared at him for a moment, wondering how the child had so easily seen through her calm exterior. At her lack of an answer, he wrapped his little arms around her middle. His hands could hardly grab each other at the small of her back. As she awkwardly hugged him in return, he mumbled into her chest, "It's okay, he scares me, too." Stroking his messy curls with her hand, she furrowed her brow. "Why does he scare you, little one?"

Romeo pulled away, still remaining in her grasped. He explained, "He's a lot bigger than me, and he's almost as tall as Grandpa. He's always cold when he comes here, and he makes Grandpa very tired when he leaves. I think Grandpa might be a little scared of him." Brushing his hair with her fingers, Natasha held him close and started rocking from side to side. "It's okay, little one. Everyone's afraid of something." Curiously, he asked, "What are you afraid of, Miss Natasha?" Smiling at him, she replied, "Me? I'm not afraid of anything."


End file.
